Acting on a little known provision of the 1998 Rehabilitation Act, a Federal law has been passed mandating software, Web pages and computer equipment to be accessible by Federal workers with sight and hearing disabilities. This legislation is sure to affect thousands of technology vendors who sell to the government. Web pages accessed by the federal government are also being targeted for compliance. Clearing up the problems these web sites currently present includes incorporating starker color contrasts for the color blind, using larger fonts and 'click through' buttons for others with poor motor skills, and fashioning keyboards with raised Braille markings on the keys for the blind. Another technology that is being touted for Federal web sites is a screen reader that can read the text of web pages aloud to blind users. A collaborative effort of the General Services Administration and the U.S. Access Board, the Federal IT Accessibility Initiative (FITAI), states that the provision is meant to provide specific standards for both software and hardware applications.

According to the ruling, only those technology products directly relevant to Federal contracts are included. As the FITAI explains, "For example, a firm that produces a report for a Federal agency under a contract would not have to procure accessible computers and word processing software even if they were used exclusively for the contract." Compliance is required, however, for technologies that may later become Federal agency property as deliverables fulfilling an existing government contract. For those companies that are contracted by a government agency to design a web site, the ruling would apply to the agency's web site but not the design company's.

Source: Deadline Looms for IT Law
Richard Brown
Line 56, June 12, 2001
http://www.line56.com/articles/default.asp?NewsID=2610&ml=2